‘Twilight’ movie update: We have our Bella and Edward
I know there are quite a few fans here of the “Twilight” books about a teenage girl who has fallen in love with a vampire, so here’s some more big news about the upcoming movie based on the first novel. A director (Catherine Hardwicke) was confirmed a few months ago, and now we have our leads.
Bella will be played by 17-year-old Kristen Stewart, best known as Jodie Foster’s androgynous daughter in “Panic Room.” (That was five years ago; she has grown out of her androgyny.) She’s currently in “Into the Wild” and was seen earlier this year in “The Messengers.” She’s a solid actress and a good choice for the part, I think.
Edward’s the tricky one. The book spends many pages describing him, and in particular how beautiful he is. Can you find an actual human being to play such a role? Maybe it will be like Stephen King’s “It,” where it’s one thing to describe on paper how scary something is, but quite another to actually show it.
Anyway, they’ve hired 21-year-old Robert Pattinson, an English actor best known for playing Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies. Does Edward have an English accent in the books? I don’t remember. English accents are romantic, though, so lots of male leads in chick flicks have them. Pattinson hasn’t been in enough movies for me to have an opinion on his talent, and I’ll leave the discussion of whether he’s beautiful enough to play the impossibly gorgeous Edward to others.
The book’s author, Stephenie Meyer, cheerfully admits on her website that she has no say whatsoever in the casting of the film, but offers some suggestions for whom she would choose. Given her previous selections, I’d guess Pattinson probably fits in with her tastes.
The movie is supposed to start shooting soon, with a tentative release date of late 2008.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I’ve never read any of the “Twilight” books, but it seems to me that Cedric Diggory is described much the same in the Potter books as you say Edward is described in the “Twilight” books.
I checked young Mr. Pattinson out on imdb.com and loved this “personal quote”: “Up until I was 12 my sisters used to dress me up as a girl and introduce me as ‘Claudia’! Twelve was a turning point as I moved to a mixed school and then I became cool and discovered hair gel.”
December 12th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I’ll just point out that Edward is so lavishly described by a besotted, hormonal teenage girl. All that’s important is that he looks good enough that you can see the inanely giggling girls around you at the theater drooling over him in like manner.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
AHHH my favorite books ever!! I am SO excited that they are going to be brought to the silver screen. I just hope that the movie can live up to the exciting and wonderful world that the books conjure up. And no, Edward does not have an English accent in the books, but I’m pretty sure that it will not detract from the character overall. And, coming from a 15 year old girl (whom I am pretty sure is the target audience here) Robert is definetly enough of a hottiepants to pull off the dashing role of Edward. I just hope that the movie won’t corrupt these special stories.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
I just finished reading Twilight last week and didn’t really care for it. It seemed to be yet another story playing on the secret desire of all teenage girls - that the perfect, desirable, wonderful, well-dressed, gorgeous, rich guy will be completely and totally in love with them just because of who they are. No effort required on their part.
I know I’m not the target audience so it doesn’t really matter what I think, but it seemed a little shallow to merit all the fuss.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Wow…if hanna really is a 15 year old girl (that is how I read that sentence, anyways), I have to say that she gets major points for being light years ahead of most teenage commenters on this site in grammar, spelling, and sentence structure.
hanna, good for you…you have renewed a small piece of my hope for the future
December 12th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I agree, Stephkitten. She even knew how to start a sentence with “And,” which is a skill most people lose when clueless teachers in middle school tell them it’s wrong (see also “But” and “So”).
December 12th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I’m a 15-year-old girl, as well, but I really didn’t like Twilight. I agree with Laylabean. It seems to be wish-fulfillment.
Still, though, I bet it’ll make a lot of money. I know a lot of my friends like both Twilight and Robert Pattinson.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
I told my sister the news today. She squealed and screamed into the phone, making my ears ring. I didn’t like the books much, I could barely get through the first one (okay, I didn’t at all) But it’s nice to see kids like my sister reading.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I am not a fifteen year old girl.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Looking through her pictures at imdb, I think Kristen Stewart is still androgynous. She’s a mighty pretty boy.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
I’m a 16-year-old girl, so near enough the target audience, I guess. I’ve read that entire series of books, but it’s the sort of thing you don’t want to admit to reading if you’re any sort of serious reader. They’re fun and fluffy because I’m a teenage girl, but it’s like, “I’d better hide those books behind my three volumes of Little Women before someone realizes I’ve been reading this junk!”
So yeah, totally what Laylabean said. Shallow, obvious wish fulfillment. I’ve read the author’s page and she seems like a sweet woman who adores her fans, so I won’t bash her too much.
Anyway, the accent’s a little weird, and I hope Cedric shaves for the role, because he nearly looks like Justin Timberlake in that picture. He’s nice, though. Good for him, starring in more movies.
December 13th, 2007 at 10:24 am
I agree with Laylabean as well. I read pieces of these books and thought “Wow, this could be a cool story if it wasn’t basically just about how a girl gets everything she ever wanted in a boy.” I know the characters get into “scrapes” and whatnot, but it’s overall just about a teenage girl who gets the boy of her dreams and he won’t let her be a vampire too. Waaaah. Until the second or third book or whenever.
However, this prompted me to start writing a book of my own again… because heck, if a book written like this and about that sort of thing can get on the best-seller list, so can my book! So look for me on the best seller list in a year or two.
————————-
On another note, I’m also glad to see that there are some literate 15 year olds out there still! Yay! I decided recently that I won’t let my children use cell phones or instant messaging unless they promise to spell everything out properly.
Will that make me a mean mother?
December 13th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
How did this post turn into so much Twilight-bashing? I am not a teenager, nor a girl, but I still really enjoyed Twilight. As to the “wish fulfillment” angle, well, of COURSE it is wish fulfillment. After all, the entire genre is called “Fantasy.” It is all about wish fulfillment and the problems that often come along with those wishes being fulfilled.
As for Robert Pattinson playing Edward? Well, it is possible for actors with English accents to affect American accents for roles. A perfect example of this is Jamie Bamber, who has a very English accent, yet he plays Apollo on Battlestar Galactica and speaks with a pretty much flawless American accent the whole time. I had no idea that he wasn’t American until I saw him on “Celebrity Poker Showdown” and was shocked to hear his natural accent. Anyway, I don’t think it would be impossible for Robert Pattinson to play Edward (who is from Chicago in the book).
December 13th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Yes, Chicago, 1917.
Pshaw. I really liked Twilight up until about page 236 or so, when the book would not shut up about Edward. How many adjectives are out there to describe physical beauty? I’m thinking about buying the book, scanning each page for beauty synonyms, highlighting them and then writing “Beauty Thesaurus” over that apple on the front in big, ugly black sharpie and then ignore the rest of the words in the book. It was getting horrendously irritating, and it was making me sick reading about Bella’s wishes coming true and yadda yadda yadda and there wasn’t much of a story, really. It just kept going on and on and nothing, was really happening after the first third of the book. Finally, when I stumbled across beauty synonym #367,456,998, I couldn’t take it anymore. If I hadn’t have borrowed it from a dear friend who loves the series, I would have thrown it and stomped on it and burned it and flushed the ashes down the toilet, it was getting so irritating.
Maybe I’m just bitter that Bella got someone cool and I didn’t. I did learn something valuable in reading of it what I did, though, and that is that it’s more important to go out there and do your best to make your own wishes and dreams come true instead of drooling over fictional someone else’s.
December 13th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
And sorry for the errant comma after “nothing.” Yay for proofing.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Robert Pattinson has eyebrows. I like eyebrows.
December 13th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
I just hope the movie does well enough that we have a second so we can find out who’s going to play Jake, the love interest that’s actually interesting!
December 13th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
I am a 25-year-old mommy of one and I actually enjoyed the books thoroughly. Of course, I must agree with ShirleySays, and regard them as a guilty pleasure. I think I actually learned a lot about being more selfless in a relationship FROM Edward than expecting that out of my husband (though he is a continuously great example). As far as Robert Pattinson, my only qualm is that he makes “pretty boy faces” at the camera in almost all of his pictures– not an attractive quality. But I think Kristen Stewart will do an excellent job!
December 13th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Yes, I am actually a sentinent teenage girl. Apparently, some people tend to stereotype my demographic as vapid little [vulgarity]. I was surprised when those commenters congradulated me on proper grammer, as that comment is just a reflection of how I speak in real life. I am saddened that the day has come when people commend a teenager for using the English laguage properly instead of corecting those who misuse it.
Wow, it kind of sounds like I have a stick up my [butt]. But seriously, I’m just a normal teenager I swear!!
December 13th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Sentinet, congradulated, grammer, laguage, corecting.
Sentient, congratulated, grammar, language, correcting.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
I wanted to clarify that I regard the Twilight series as a guilty pleasure because of the number of times I have read them. I am not such a literary snob as to think that a book has to have been written in the 19th century to qualify it as being important or influential or powerful. Not to mention that Meyer’s vocabulary and writing style shouldn’t really be categorized as “fluff”. Granted, Meyer’s going on and on and on and on about how gorgeous Edward is was certainly somewhat shallow, but I think it only showed her novice as a writer as the 2nd and 3rd books don’t even compare. The latter books also show much more maturity in Edward and Bella’s relationship and personalities and the complications of each of their wishes. And a little bit of wish fulfillment isn’t so bad as long as it gives us a little hope instead of raising expectations beyond an attainable degree. Plus, if you think about it, anyone who can attain the control that the Cullen’s have been able to attain would have to be very selfless and VERY patient. It’s part of the whole story that they are inhuman in their potential.
December 13th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
I’m a Twilight fanbrat. I won’t lie. Anyone whose pathetic fifteen year old soul has been consumed by Twilight and Harry Potter at some point, give a shout of joy at the merging of these two series with the casting of Cedward Cullery!!!!!!!!
December 15th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Shirley, I once decided to read a Jane Austen book. I had to hide it behind my three volumes of The Lord of the Rings.
December 15th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
ok soo im sooo happy!! today i was bragging about how im gonna do something about this “not having a movie on this book” lol. and it soo happenes they are. def excited i just finished reading this book today. it only took em 3 days to finish - thats how good it was - and no edward didnt have an english accent
December 15th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Regarding the accent (and by the way, teens DEFINITELY can write, spell, form complete sentences, even eat using forks!…grrr!), Stephenie Meyer in her myspace blog said that Robert Pattinson had a “flawless American accent” and that he and Kristen had excellent chemistry. She also said that when he auditioned for the part he knocked their socks off. Also, she said that he has read all 3 books!
December 24th, 2007 at 3:50 am
can I ask whether this is a “the future generation is doomed” blog or is it talking about Twilight?
Personally I think that Rob would play second best to Gaspard Ulliel who was my Edward all the way through the first book, but I can’t change that so Rob will have to do. I do hope that they let him keep an element of his English accent though because Edward is meant to have a certain way of talking that would would be helped greatly by his accent (it would also help us English to relate to him better!)
But you guys have the wrong idea here, Rob has already been cast as Edward but you’ve all forgotten Jacob! I’ve just finished reading the New Moon and I must say I had a hard time deciding if I prefered Jacob or Edward. I hope they choose someone who fits the role well as he has a major part to play in the other books too.
xxx
December 28th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Well, I have read all the Twilight books and I do not understand why people stop with Twilight. Are they in the dark about the other two books that have been writen? Any way, those they have casted to play Edward and Bella are not what I had pictured but I do however feel that they will play them beautifully. Just to answer a few questions, Edward is an American, from Chicago, he does not have an english accent. Carlise however, does have an english accent. Also, some have mentioned that Edward’s beauty is based on the view of a hormonal teenager. Obviously, these people have not read the book. All of the vampires, not just Edward, are impossibly breathtaking. It is apart of their changes they go through when they are turned. It is to draw in their prey, humans. Not that it really matters at the moment, I just bothers me when people think they know what they are talking about and they could not be more wrong. So, the casting directors dont have their problems solved with casting a beautiful enough Edward. They also have to keep in mind they have nine vampires with angelic beauty they have to cast. Good luck with that. I just wanted everyone to know that all the vampires are made to be heart stoping. its not just Bella’s hormones. So far I am happy with the two people they have cast. But they do have their work cut out for them.
December 28th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
and to Pav, I agree with you about Jake. Its a hard pick between the two of them. I dont have a clue how they are going to cast a Jacob that is going to be able to shoot up almost two feet in a year and also be a yummy native american that is probably the best guy ever created, other than Edward. Like i said, they have their work cut out for them.
December 29th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Amsgirly00 you are very right about the other 2 books, im currently reading Eclipse and the while jacob edward thing is coming to a head, by far the best book out of the three As for the other nine vampires, I can’t to see who they cast but with all these special effects flying around I’m sure they can make them look hauntingly beautiful. And as for jacob, I’m sure even CGI won’t be able to make him grow out as much as he does in the book. I’d like to see how they pull it off.
xxx
P.S If Carlisle has an English accent they should cast Charlie Hunnum, he’s a hot blonde Brit ( quite fitting..LOL!)
January 7th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I usually don’t make comments on these websites, but after reading what some other people wrote I just had to. As for the Twilight series, I found them to be wonderful books, and quoting what was already said, of course they seem “too” wishfull, they’re FANTASY, but besides that I thought they were tremendously well written, and they do what art is supposed to, invoke emotion, and imagination, this is coming from a person who loved, ” A Tale of Two Cities,” and,” Angela’s Ashes.” However, my main reason for writing this was to mention how incredibly rude it was of these 30 somethings to say how they were amazed to find literate 15 year olds, and other comments to that affect, everyone was 15 at some point, and they are intelligent, but young, and still have childish, but fun fantasies, I’m sorry but I thought that you were supposed to be like that when you’re young. As for the word abbreviations on texts, and messages to friends, it’s not like they write like that on formal papers, unless they’re trying to be funny, and get attention from peers, and they’re also still in school learning how to spell, and write more properly, they aren’t supposed to be born with this knowledge.
~ Mara age 15
January 8th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I think the book was fantastic. It was a quick and easy read with a story line that caught my attention. At first I was skeptical because it was about vampires and stuff like that but the love story was actually good in it. Sure it gives girls hopes of finding an “Edward” but so what? Isn’t that what a story is for? To escape reality? There are Edwards out there, well maybe not to an extreme but they do exist.
and its not just for fifteen year olds, my aunt read it and gave it to me and shes well passed being fifteen.
January 26th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I think the movie will be horrible with the actors they got now for Bella and Edward. I think they would be better as Jessica Stanly and Jacob Black but not them so this will be a very TERRIBLE movie. I have read all 3 books and i would never imagine him and her to play them and really i think a lot of other people would agree with me no this. I LOVE the books and cant wait for her other new ones but this movie will totally put the book for the wrost view for peopple who havent read the book. This is only one girls opinion who has read all 3 books but now it had a abig impact on me when i found out who was playing the parts for them and really i really mean that i think that people who will see the movie without reading will not wnat to read the books bacause the movie is soo TERRIBLE and i dont want people to think of the book like that than any other person who has read the books and adore her books as much as i do.
January 26th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
And really i think some one like Tom Welling would be the better person to play Edward but it is really impossible to pick out someone who should play better. I am reallly friggin pissed off by the actors and actresses that they had picked out.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
. . . . . . Well i’m not one for grammer cause I have a disability in it.I loved the book it was seriously somthing I would rewcomend to people who love the fantasy world. It had a good way to of giving a view on the teen view. All tho there were a few things i found mind bobeling. it was how much unrelisticy Bella thought. It wasn’t like how a realy teen think. The thing is she thought thins through like an adult of like 45 it just wasn’t it for me. We don’t all get histaric when we loss a boy. She went through months like she was dying. It said she was in a zombie like state. that was the only thing that ticked me off about thet book. Cause she is such a spaz. I mean really come it wasn’t the end of the freakin world just cause Edward left. . . . . sorry I don’t mean to be down on the book but that was just a. . . well. . . a no go for me. i also agree with Amsgirly00 good luck with that. I mean find a good actor with god like featuers. I also have to coment on the person you want to play Edward I’m just not feeling it with him. A lot of my freinds think the same thing about it. You should find some one different cause he just dosn’t look it. . . . But you never know he might pull it off.
February 15th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
OK, I have to turn the comments off for this post, lest this site become the kind of site I hate, i.e., the kind where girls pretend to have “grammar disabilities” and talk about cute boys as if cute = talented.
Teenage girls! Begone with you! I rue the day I ever posted something that would appear in your “Twilight movie hot guys actor vampire OMG” Googlings!